


Hero

by annabookchase



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:56:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8486680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annabookchase/pseuds/annabookchase
Summary: Percy and Annabeth have been the heroes since they were twelve, and during their freshman year of college it all catches up with them. Percy's fatal flaw of loyalty causes him to want to be the hero, but really, the poor kid just wants to settle down with Annabeth and relax. Like everything, they get through it together. 1,523 words





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Before you start, I would like to preface and say that this is one of my first works, so please don't hate me too much! (Of course, I would like to have some feedback, so comments are certainly appreciated.)

Annabeth is sitting at the dining table in their little apartment in New Rome when Percy walks in, back from assisting in fixing the broken aqueducts. It's around eight o’clock at night, and he had been gone since five-thirty. On a Saturday, no less. He takes off his shoes by the door, hangs his coat up, and walks into the dining-room-slash-kitchen where Annabeth sits, working on some of her architecture schoolwork. He leans against the door-frame and says, in a slightly monotone, defeated voice, “Hey.” 

Annabeth, noticing him for the first time (she often did this when she was deep in her work), looks up and sees how beaten-down he seems to look. She immediately stands up and goes to him, concern written all over her face. “Hey, yourself,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Everything okay?” Percy gives her a weak attempt at a smile. “Yeah, I’m just . . .” He seems to have prepared his usual line of ‘I’m fine, don’t worry, it’s all good, just tired’ and pushing away his problems, as both of them have an unhealthy habit of doing. In the end, however, he must have decided against it because he sighs. 

“Not really,” he says, frowning and almost looking . . . guilty. Annabeth’s heart breaks a bit looking at him, and in that instant, he reminds her of the twelve-year-old boy who had just lost his mom, or the sixteen-year-old boy who comforted her after she had watched Luke sacrifice himself. In other words, he looks . . . defeated, and Annabeth wants to do anything she can to make him feel better. She places another kiss on his cheek, which he leans into, and says, “Come here.” She leads him to the couch and stands in front of him once he's sat down. “I’ll be right back, okay?” she says against his forehead as she kisses it. He nods at her, albeit slowly and zombie-like, and she goes off to the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, she opens the cupboard that contains all the tea (her preference) and coffee (his preference), but also something that neither of them really use much: hot chocolate, the same that was sold at New Rome’s cafes. It was a sort of housewarming gift from Reyna. She had given it to them when they first got settled in for their freshman year of college, which had only been a few months ago, so Annabeth figures it's still good. She heats up some milk up in the microwave, getting two mugs and putting some of the powdered hot chocolate mix and a dash of cinnamon in them while she waits. When it's done, she pours the steaming milk over the powder, grabs two spoons, and carries them both out to the living room where Percy waits. 

She hands him one of the cups and then sits down next to him with her own. She snuggles up into his side, her legs going the opposite direction and her head resting on his shoulder. He immediately responds by placing his head on hers and reaching his left hand over to hold hers, gently rubbing his thumb on her own. He takes a drink of his hot chocolate. “This is really good,” he compliments, turning to kiss the top of her head, “thank you.”

“No problem. It’s the stuff Reyna gave to us,” she says, to which he nods. Then, after a pause, a moment of silence together, she speaks again. “Do you want to talk?” He sighs lightly, leaning forward to put his hot chocolate on the coffee table in front of them, and she does the same. When they both sit back, this time not snuggled together, he turns to her with his head down, looking at their feet. “It’s . . . kinda stupid,” he says, looking up at her, a little guiltily. She frowns. “It’s not stupid, Percy. Something’s bothering you, and I want to make you feel better by talking about it. Okay?” 

“Okay,” he says, and smiles a little, but it's a weary smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He gives a little sigh again before he speaks. “I’m just tired, you know?” At first, Annabeth is ready to tell him that she knows he's upset, not just tired, but she decides against it, to and pushes him a little farther. “Tired of what?” she asks him. He bites his lip in thought, apparently deciding what to reply with, before saying “Of . . . of being the hero. Does that make sense?” Annabeth thinks so but isn’t one hundred percent sure. “Can you elaborate a little more?” she asks him, as she turns to face him better. 

“Well, little things like helping with the aqueducts are fine, I mean, the water is my territory so I’m okay with leading those tasks, but for a lot of other things . . . I wish I could just sit back and let someone else take over. That sounds terrible, I know, and I always want to help, but I’m just . . . tired of being the hero.”

Annabeth is shocked for a split second, but seeing his guilty puppy look, she quickly realizes that this is eating away at him, and he feels wrong for wanting to take a break, and she feels outraged. Not at him, but at the fact that this poor kid didn’t get to grow up, he had to, through prophecies and wars and quests. Of course, she thought, she was there with him through all of it (excluding his time alone at New Rome, but she hadn’t exactly gotten out of that one scot-free), and she had his back as much as he had hers, but realizing that all the stress she felt of having no break between twelve years old and now affected him, too? She wants to grab the Fates by their wrinkly old necks and strangle each one of them.

“It’s not wrong, Percy,” she assures him, “you have a right to feel that way! If anything, it’s my fault for not realizing you felt like this sooner.” She pulls him in, hugging him as tightly as she can. She feels him shake a little and realizes he's crying. She rubs his back for a little while, before pulling back and wiping his tears. “How long has this been bothering you, Perce?” she asks, in a quiet voice.

“It started somewhere during the Argo II quest, I guess,” he says, shrugging a little. Annabeth chews the inside of her lip, thinking. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks, tilting her head to the side a little. He averts her eyes and confesses, “I didn’t want to bother you. I mean, I know that you’ve gone through the same stuff, and some worse stuff, and I didn’t want to add to your stress-”

“Percy, stop.” she interrupts; she sighs. “Yes, I’ve been going through the same stuff, but that doesn’t invalidate your feelings.” She gently cupps his face with her hands, forcing him to look into her eyes as he’s done many times to her in moments like this, before continuing. “Remember? We have to work on communication. You have to tell me these things. I want you to tell me these things.” She pauses; she kisses his forehead, each cheek, his nose, and then looks at him and says, “Because I love you, and I care about you, just as much as you care about me. No less.”

“But . . .” he says, looking at a loss for words. His eyebrows furrow, even deeper, and he sounds defeated when he whispers, “I just want you to be happy.”

Annabeth frowns, too, and says, “You make me happy. You always do. And I want to return the favor.”

He blinks at her. “But I can’t just push my emotions onto you.”

She clasps his hands in hers, holding them tightly and looking straight into his eyes. “Percy, that’s what I’m asking you to do. You let me push mine onto you, don’t you?”

He stares at her, guilt and worry in his eyes, but she’s looking back at him the same way. Finally, he takes a deep breath, gives a small smile, and answers. “Yeah,” he resolves, “I do. I let you do it, and I think . . .” He trails off, then starts again. “I think I need to realize that what I want for you is what you want for me, and I just need to . . . accept that. Right?”

He looks so hopeful, and she thinks he really gets it now, and, gods, does she just want to hold on to that smile and keep it forever in her heart. “Right,” she says and gives him a smile right back (which grows his, of course). Simultaneously, they move forward to their respective places (his hand on her hip and his other hand cradling her head, her hand grasping his shirt and the other grasping his hair) and they kiss, and this is what they are; this is what they do. They have conflicts, they have their ups and downs and lefts and rights, but in the end, they get through it together.

And of course, Annabeth thinks, together is all they really need.


End file.
